.C8TrI 


ERRATA.  —  Page  11,  line  :ird  from  the  top,  instead  of  "  live,"  read  even.  Page  14  —  line 
lid  from  the  top,  instead  of  "  procured,"  read  pursued.  Page  15,  lines  5  and  6  from  the  top, 
read  Hence,  in  his  view,  &x. ;  and  after  "  moral  suasion  "  &c.  be  ' '  with  him."  Page  2-2,  line 
live,  before  "  vagrant",  insert  and. 


DISCOURSE 

AT  THE 

FUNERAL  SOLEMNITIES, 

OBSERVED  AT  BRIDGEPORT,  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF  THE 
CITY  AUTHORITIES,  AFRIL  19th,  1841, 

\  COMMEMORATIVE 

OF    THE    DECEASE 

OF 

WILLIAM  HENRY  HARRISON, 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  U.  STATES, 

WHO  DEPARTED  THIS  LIFE  APRIL  4,  1841. 

BY 

NATHANIEL  HEWIT,  D.  D. 

PASTOR  OF  THE  SOUTH  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH. 


STANDARD   OFFICE, 

BRIDGEPORT,  CONN. 
1841. 


Advertisement. 


WILLIAM  HENRY  HARRISON,  late  President  of  the  United  States,, 
was  inaugurated  on  the  4th  of  March  1841,  and  died  suddenly  on  the  4th  of  April 
following,  in  the  69th  year  of  his  age.  He  was  elected  by  an  overwhelming 
majority,  after  a  more  sharp  party  contest  than  any  that  preceded  it.  The  pecu- 
liar posture  of  the  country  both  as  to  its  domestic  and  foreign  concerns,  rendered 
the  election  of  General  Harrison,  to  those  who  confided  in  him,  a  most  propitious 
event,  and  his  decease  has  plunged  the  country  into  grief  and  consternation  unex- 
ampled in  our  history  since  the  death  of  Washington.  Under  these  circumstances 
the  following  discourse  was  pronounced  to  a  vast  concourse  of  all  parties.  As  a 
multitude  were  prevented  from  hearing  it,  being  unable  to  enter  the  place  of  wor- 
ship where  it  was  delivered,  it  is  for  their  sakes  chiefly,  that  the  author  consents  to 
its  publication,  and  not  because  he  concurs  in  the  over-estimation  of  its  merit9  by  hi» 
partial  friends. 


Bridgeport,  21st  April,  1841. 
To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hewit ; 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  late  President's 
Funeral,  convened  by  special  notice,  Charles  Bostwick,  Esq.  was  called  to  the 
Chair,  and  Wm.  B.  Dyer,  Esq.  chosen  Secretary,  it  was 

Resolved,  unanimously,  That  the  thanks  of  this  meeting  be  tendered  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Hewit,  for  his  very  able  and  eloquent  discourse  delivered  at  the  Baptist 
Church  on  Monday  last  in  commemoration  of  the  decease  of  the  late  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  that  they  respectfully  ask  of  him  a  copy  for  publication. 

Resolved,  That  Charles  Bostwick,  D.  B.  Nichols,  andS.  B.  Jones,  be  a  Com- 
mittee to  carrv  the  above  Resolution  into  effect. 

CHARLES  BOSTWICK,  Chairman. 


To  Charles  Bostwick,  D.  B.Nichols,  and  S.  B.  Jones,  Esqrs.  Committee,  c$-c.  : 
Gentlemen — I  herewith  submit  to  your  disposal  the  discourse  mentioned, 
with  my  thankful  acknowledgements  for  the  favorable  notice  you  are  pleased  to 
lake  of  it.  Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

NATHANIEL  HEWIT. 
Bridgeport,  April21st,  1841. 


DISCOURSE. 


Well  known  among  you,  brethren  and  friends,  as  being  no 
party  man  in  temporal  affairs,  J  can  with  the  more  assurance  call 
upon  you  to  lay  aside  your  animosities  as  a  divided  people,  and 
unite  conscientiously  with  me,  in  aiding  us  all  to  lay  religiously 
to  heart  the  decease  of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States, 
which  we  have  assembled  to  solemnize. 

Although  praise  of  the  praiseworthy  dead,  is  due  both  to  them 
and  the  living,  that  "the  good  which  men  do  may  not  be  interred 
with  their  bones  ;"  and  that  their  examples  may  the  more  be 
commended  to  those  who  come  after  them,  yet  this  service  inform 
to  the  memory  of  William  Henry  Harrison,  I  must  leave  to  those 
who  better  know  his  merits,  and  are  more  competent  to  set 
them  forth  for  the  instruction  of  mankind.  Illustrious  men,  who 
emulously  strove  to  honor  him  living,  will  perpetuate  his  name  in 
words  more  durable  than  brass  and  marble.  To  those  tributes  of 
admiration  for  his  qualities  as  a  man,  and  of  gratitude  for  his 
services  as  a  benefactor  of  his  country,  wet  with  tears  for  his 
premature  death,  I  must  refer  all  present  who,  with  them,  com- 
mitted to  his  hands  the  public  welfare,  and  who  deplore  his  early 
removal  as  a  national  calamity,  for  that  relief  of  blighted  hopes 
and  bereaved  affection,  which  is  found  in  recalling  the  images  of 
the  fair,  the  great,  and  the  good  who  are  hidden  from  us  in  the 
darkness  of  the  grave. 

Before  we  turn  our  attention  to  the  sudden  decease  of  the  Chief 
Ruler  of  our  country,  an  event  hitherto  unexampled  amongst  us, 
and  in  which  we  have  all  a  common  concern,  we  shall  do  violence 
to  ourselves  as  being  also  tenants  of  clay,  and  at  a  hand's  breadth 
from  the  unseen  world,  if  we  linger  not  awhile  in  the  house  of 
mourning,  where  we  see  the  end  of  all  flesh,  and  lay  that  also 
to  heart.  Standing  beside  the  remains  of  President  Harrison, 
we  cannot  fail  of  seeing  the  hand. writing  of  the  finger  of  God 
upon  them,  copied  from  his  word,  and  in  this  case  so  impressively 
verified:  "Man  in  his  best  estate  is  altogether  vanity  J"  We 
should  read  that  inscription  as  written  alike  upon  the  living  and 
the  dead.  In  his  best  estate  man  is  a  vanity,  as  well  as  when  he 
can  hold  that  estate  no  longer,  and  when  he  is  forced  away  from 
it,  lo  go  down  to  the  place  occupied  in  common  by  the  lowliest 


and  loftiest  of  men.  Here  likewise  let  us  beware  of  the  incense 
offered  to  the  living  by  the  funeral  pageantries  for  the  dead. 
These  the  more  frequently  inflame  the  pride  of  man,  whilst  they 
seem  to  rebuke  it,  and  soothe  the  aspirations  of  ambition  and 
vain- glory  which  they  ought  to  chastise.  Man's  idolatry  of  man 
is  the  distemper  of  the  race.  Mindful  of  this,  let  us  commemo- 
rate the  gifts  and  graces  of  the  deceased,  wherein  as  one  of 
ourselves,  he  can  be  an  example  to  us  all. 

Were  I  to  expatiate  at  length  on  the  person  and  life  of  Harrison, 
I  would  scrupulously  shun  eulogiumson  those  endowments  which 
he  had  in  common  with  other  celebrated  men,  but  who  neverthe- 
less were  the  basest  of  mankind.  His  extraordinary  powers, 
both  natural  and  acquired,  his  opponents  themselves  being  judges, 
were  under  the  direction  of  his  conscience  ;  and  that,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  his  friends,  was  purified  and  illumined  by 
"  the  wisdom  which  is  from  above."  I  speak  this  of  him  with 
all  due  caution  ;  for  I  am  well  aware  with  what  facility  illustrious 
men,  after  their  decease,  are  garnished  with  virtues  they  never 
had,  and  enthroned  above  with  the  saints  of  the  Most  High, 
whose  fellowship  they  scorned  whilst  here  below.  Most  persons, 
and  the  foremost  of  these  are  the  eminent  themselves,  assume  it 
as  a  thing  of  course,  that  the  "  highly  esteemed  amongst  men," 
must  be  even  more  so  with  God  ;  and  that  all  who  have  rilled  a 
high  place  on  earth,  must  have  a  higher  in  heaven.  How  eagerly 
a  very  small  matter,  if  it  have  a  little  of  religious  savor,  is  seized 
on  and  magnified  as  conclusive  evidence  of  a  great  man's  fitness 
for  the  Kingdom  of  God  ;  as  if  a  transient  and  equivocal  notice 
of  the  christian  religion  on  his  part,  was  equivalent  to  "  the  faith 
and  patience  of  the  saints  !" 

There  is  indeed  a  magnificence  in  worldly  greatness  which 
seduces  the  strong-minded  and  confounds  the  weak.  But  it  is 
not  a  grandeur  that  is  true  and  real.  It  is  a  vain  show  :  the 
gorgeous  drapery  merely,  which  passion  puts  on  the  otherwise 
naked  deformites  of  fallen  man,  and  this  ruined  world.  Reason 
alone,  without  the  help  of  scripture,  is  able  to  discover  that  *  the 
fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away."  And  were  great  men 
rational  only,  they  would  be  humble;  and  were  small  men  rational 
likewise  they  would  envy  the  great  no  more.  It  is  passion,  not 
reason  ;  it  is  depraved  human  nature  more  debased  by  mis- 
culture,  rather  than  purified  by  refinement ;  it  is  infidelity  hid 
beneath  the  forms  of  Christianity,  not  the  "  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints  ;"  which  arrays  the  affairs  of  this  life  in  scarlet,  and 
purple  and  gold,  and  then  devoutly  worships  them.  The  purse, 
the  sword  and  the  sceptre  are  great  and  glorious  in  the  eyes  of 
men  of  great  passions,  weak  reason,  and  no  faith.  How  does 
man's  mortality  explode  the  dreams  of  mighty  passion  !     When 


.. 

the  vast  powers  of  extraordinary  men  are  in  thraldom  to  that 
sorceress,  what  a  sorrowful  spectacle  of  the  degradation  of  our 
nature  appears  !  and  when  one  of  these  sons  of  the  mighty  is 
smitten  down  to  the  dust,  what  a  havoc  is  made  of  the  great 
passions  of  his  breast ! 

What  a  prodigy  is  man  !  the  more  great,  the  more  prodigious  ! 
The  great  man  of  the  world  sees  all  things  but  truth,  learns  all 
things  hut  wisdom,  does  all  things  but  his  duty,  bears  all  things 
but  self-denial,  gains  all  things  but  peace  of  mind  ;  is--  praised  by 
all  voices  except  that  of  his  conscience  ;  with  every  thing  glori- 
ous in  life  except  that  it  is  short,  and  soon  to  terminate  in  the 
grave,  which  he  nevertheless  casts  out  of  his  thoughts,  or  pushes 
forwards  into  the  obscurity  of  a  remote  and  uncertain  future, 
whence  of  a  suddent  death  springs  upon  him  from  that  obscurity, 
as  a  thief  in  the  night,  and  hurls  him  in  agony,  remorse  and 
despair  with  violence  out  of  the  world  ! 

It  wa9  not  so  with  President  Harrison.  If  he  had  great  pas. 
sions,  he  served  them  not.  During  a  long  life,  they  were  in 
subjection  to  his  strong  moral  sense.  I  know  not  that  his  repu- 
talion  in  private  or  public  lift*,  is  stained  by  any  habitual  vice  ; 
and  am  yet  to  learn  that  he  ever  perpetrated  an  offence  against 
good  morals.  In  all  the  grades  of  the  human  family,  we  occa- 
sionally meet  with  individuals  in  whom  the  personal  and  relative 
virtues  of  moral  integrity  seem  to  be  natural.  It  appears  to  have 
been  so  with  him.  "  All  these  he  observe  d  from  his  youth  up." 
When  moreover  the  social  affections  are  united  with  a  strong 
moral  sense,  and  both  are  expanded  by  learning  and  ripened  by 
age  and  experience,  a  character  is  formed  which  all  the  world  is 
ready  to  admire.  Such  persons  are  for  the  most  part  pronounced 
without  hesitation  to  be  great  and  good.  But  we  must  be  re- 
minded that  these  endowments,  if  they  be  not  graced  by  "  an 
unction  from  the  Holy  One,"  will  "  lift  up  the  heart  of  man  with 
pride,  and  bring  him  into  the  condemnation  of  the  Devil."  It  is 
indeed  better  for  the  world  every  way,  that  great  men  should 
employ  their  talents  in  good  works,  even  if  they  do  it  "  to  be 
seen  of  men,"  than  that  they  should  despise  both  man  and  God, 
and  become  throughout  monsters  of  wickedness.  But  however 
illustrious  such  persons  may  become  by  words  and  deeds,  if 
they  aim  no  higher  than  the  praise  of  men,  they  gain  no  more 
than  it  ;"  they  have  their  reward."  When  removed  from  the 
world  they  serve,  their  revenues  of  praise  are  cut  off  forever. 
Let  eminent  men  then  beware  !  If  the  people  praise  ye  ;  and  in 
their  blind  admiration  exclaim,  "ye  are  gods!"  believe  them 
not ;  for  thus  saith  the  Lord,  "  ye  shall  die  liko  men,  and  your 
glory  shall  not  descend  after  you." 

President  Harrison,  we  trust,  was  not  a  slave  to  sordid  ambi- 


tion  ;  neither  was  it  the  ruling  passion  of  his  heart  to  court  the 
praise  of  men.  Men-pleasers  do  those  things  which  please  men, 
be  they  what  they  may.  Especially  is  this  case  with  those 
who  aspire  to  office  and  power.  These  do  obeisance  to 
public  opinion,  and  change  with  every  wind  of  popular  doctrine. 
But  he  thought  for  himself;  or  rather  he  inquired  for  truth  at  the 
fountains  of  wisdom  both  divine  and  human.  His  inaugural 
speech  is  all  his  own.  No  other  man  could  have  written  it.  It 
has  no  pattern,  and  can  have  no  imitation.  With  intrepid  in- 
tegrity he  speaks  out  what,  in  the  fear  of  God,  he  believed  to  be 
the  truth,  regardless  alike  of  friend  or  foe.  This  is  not  the  way 
of  ambitious  men,  who  are  swayed  by  the  lust  of  popular  favor, 
or  seek  it  that  they  may  aggrandize  themselves.  He  went  up  to 
power,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  with  clean  hands  and  a  pure 
heart.  He  bargained  not  for  suffrages  with  promises  of  office, 
and  as  a  President  he  had  no  debts  of  the  candidate  to  pay  by  the 
robbery  of  his  country,  or  by  a  merciless  proscription  of  those  in 
office,  whose  only  fault  was  that  they  honestly  preferred  another 
to  himself.  Had  he  been  a  servile  tool  of  factious  men,  impelled 
by  avarice,  selfish  ambition,  revenge  or  any  other  base  motive, 
or  by  a  combination  of  them  all,  would  he  have  done  thus  ?  Is 
this  the  way  of  the  world  1  Do  not  forget,  that  I  am  not  eulogi- 
zing the  chieftain  of  a  party  ;  but  am  aiming  to  find  an  honest 
man,  who  held  fast  to  his  integrity  in  the  midst  of  temptations  to 
sacrifice  it,  which  are  come  to  be  so  great,  as  to  lead  multitudes 
of  sagacious  men  to  the  belief,  that  no  man  living  is  proof  against 
them.  Hence  preparations  are  vigorously  making  to  shear  the 
office  of  President  of  those  prerogatives,  which  without  the  name, 
make  it  more  potent  than  many  of  the  crowns  of  Europe.  If 
this  be  so,  how  does  it  augment  the  evidence  that  Gen.  Harrison 
was  a  partaker  not  only  of  the  virtues  of  moral  integrity  as  a 
man,  but  also  of  that  "faith"  whose  "victory"  is  "to  overcome 
the  world." 

He  was  not  in  form  a  member  of  a  Church  of  Christ.  Suppos- 
ing him  to  have  been  a  "  believer  in  Him  with  all  his  heart,"  this 
neglect  on  his  part  was  an  act  of  disobedience  to  his  Lord  and 
Saviour  of  no  trivial  magnitude.  He  humbly  acknowledged  his 
sin,  and  doubtless  with  unfeigned  sorrow,  in  the  presence  of  his 
pastor,  adding  withal  that  he  had  long  been  deeply  convinced  of 
the  truth  and  importance  of  the  Christian  religion.  Years  ago 
he  was  a  teacher  of  a  Bible  class  in  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
Cincinnati,  and  of  course  he  had  for  a  long  time  been  much  more 
than  a  nominal  and  merely  formal  adherent  to  Christianity  in 
general.*     This  delay  of  his  proposed  subjection  to  the  gospel 

♦On  his  journey  to  Washington,  he  said  to  a  physician  at  Pittsburgh,  who  found 
him  late  in  tho  evening  reading  the  Scriptures,  "  It  has  grown  to  be  a  fixed  habit 


and  ordinances  of  Christ  may  be  explained  consistently  with  his 
sincerity  as  a  hopeful  disciple,  although  that  neglect  cannot  be 
justified.  It  is  by  no  means  uncommon  for  men  of  a  strong 
native  moral  sense,  as  was  the  case  with  him,  and  of  scrupulous 
integrity,  to  be  slow  in  falling  in  with  the  peculiarities  of  the  pure 
gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.  Their  integrity  blinds  their  con- 
sciences  to  the  depravity  of  their  hearts  in  the  sight  of  God. 
Thai  sin  natural  conscience  cannot  discover  before  it  is  enlight- 
ened by  the  law  of  God  understood  in  its  spiritual  meaning  and 
absolute  perfection.  It  is  guilt  which  expounds  to  man's  polluted 
and  ruined  soul  the  mysteries  of  Christ  and  him  crucified.  Up- 
right men  are  free  for  the  most  part  from  those  vices  and  that 
flagrant  impiety,  which  are  ordinarily  the  first,  and  in  multitudes, 
the  chief  means  of  convincing  sinners  of  their  guilt  and  exposure 
to  the  wrath  of  God,  and  which  impel  them  to  flee  for  refuse 
without  delay  to  the  mercy  of  the  gospel.  Or  he  may  have  had 
that  same  deep  self-abasement  and  profound  awe  of  the  divine 
majesty  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  "God  manifest 
in  the  flesh,"  which  appeared  in  the  Roman  Captain  who,  though 
no  Jew  outwardly,  yet  was  one  inwardly,  for  he  loved  that  nation, 
and  built  them  a  synagogue,  and  yet  thought  himself  not  worthy 
to  go  unto  Christ,  or  that  he  should  come  under  his  roof,  but  of 
whom  nevertheless  the  Lord  himself  pronounced,  "  that  he  had 
not  found  so  great  faith  "  as  his,  "  no  not  in  Israel.1' 

Be  these  things  as  they  may,  and  however  reluctant  any  one 
may  be  to  attribute  to  him  a  name  and  a  place  among  the  follow- 
ers of  the  Lamb,  certain  it  is  that  he  "  witnessed  a  good  confes- 
sion before  many  witnesses."  He  was  not  ashamed  of  Christ  and 
of  his  words,  when  he  went  up  in  clouds  of  ell  human  glory,  to 
be  installed  supreme  ruler  of  one  of  the  great  nations  of  the  earth. 
Standing  up  in  majesty  more  august  and  imposing  than  is  worn 
by  emperors  and  kings,  he  cast  down  his  garland  of  triumph  at 
the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  did  homage  to  him  who  was  slain  thereon, 
in  the  presence  of  the  high  and  mighty  of  the  land,  and  the  tens 
of  thousands  of  the  people  at  his  feet.  We  should  here  specially 
advert  to  the  fact,  that  this  homage  to  the  christian  religion  was 
the  voluntary  offering  of  the  man,  and  not  a  ceremonial  belong- 
ing by  law  or  custom  to  the  office  or  the  occasion.  When  vacant 
thrones  in  the  old  world  are  mounted  by  their  hereditary  succes- 
sors or  otherwise,  the  ceremonial  of  their  inauguration  therein, 

with  me  now,  to  read  a  portion  of  the  Scriptures  every  night.  I  am  never  so  late 
retiring,  or  go  weary,  as  to  intermit  that  practice.  It  has  been  my  habit  for  twenty 
years — at  first  as  a  matter  of  duty,  but  it  has  now  become  a  pleasure.  I  read  the 
Bible  every  night. — [Extract  from  the  National  Intelligencer. 

Rev.  Dr.  Hawley,  Pastor  of  St.  John's  Church  where  the  President  wo«hin«d 
stated  at  hi*  funeral  that  he  was  to  have  been  admitted  to  the  communion  of  the 
Church  the  Sabbath  uucceeding  hit  death. 


is  made  up  chiefly  of  religious  rites,  imperative  on  the  heira  of 
the  crown,  and  exclusive  of  their  own  cordial  concurrence.  Not 
so  is  it  here.  No  religious  formalities,  unless  the  oath  of  office 
be  one,  are  prescribed  or  demanded  in  order  to  the  full  investiture 
of  our  rulers  with  all  their  legal  prerogatives.  The  homage  of 
President  Harrison  to  Christ,  was  most  evidently  the  homage  of 
the  man  ;  spontaneous,  frank,  reverential ;  in  terms  of  artless 
simplicity,  unambiguous,  express  and  full  ;  a  sublime  and  melt- 
ing example  of  the  strength  and  loveliness  of  christian  faith  when 
it  is  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  the  great.  Let  no  man  here  sur- 
mise that  this  devout  act  was  a  crafty  device  of  a  man  of  wiles 
and  snares,  to  bribe  to  his  footstool  the  more  religious  of  the 
people.  Other  men  no  less  sagacious  than  he,  and  no  less  desir- 
ous of  the  favor  of  all  classes  of  our  countrymen,  and  not  more 
over  scrupulous  as  to  their  proceedings,  than  he  is  thought  by  any 
to  have  been,  thought  not  of  that  expedient  ;  or  if  they  did,  found 
something  in  it  which  made  it  a  burden  too  grievous  to  be  borne. 
May  we  not  then  believe  that  from  the  heart,  "he  honored  Christ 
before  men,"  and  that,  according  to  the  faithful  word  of  Christ, 
the  Lord  both  of  the  living  and  the  dead,  Christ  now  honors  him 
before  the  "  face  of  his  Father  in  heaven,  and  before  his  angels."" 
If  moreover,  he  left  his  retirement,  where  he  had  all  a  wise 
man  wishes,  a  good  man  enjoys,  and  a  truly  great  man  alone 
appreciates,  not  from  the  impulse  of  sordid  ambition,  but  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  will  of  God's  providence,  then  his  sudden  death  may 
well  be  regarded,  as  it  respects  himself,  a  martyrdom  to  christian 
riirhteousness.  As  things  now  are  in  our  country,  and  as  they 
are  like  to  be  more  and  more  so  hereafter,  the  successful  candi- 
date for  our  republican  crown  is  more  a  victim  than  a  victor. 
That  crown  is  one  of  iron  ;  and  he  needs  to  be  more  or  less  than 
man  who  can  wear  it  long.  Without  presuming  to  scrutinize  the 
secret  will  of  God,  or  to  explore  the  issues  of  life  and  death,  may 
we  not  suppose,  that  the  fresh  and  tender  emotions  of  a  heart, 
generous  by  nature,  and  enlarged  by  a  long  and  diversified  life 
through  scenes  which  sharpened  its  susceptibilities  to  all  that 
belongs  to  one's  kind  and  country,  chastened  by  the  law  and 
purified  by  the  gospel,  mellowed  by  the  charities  of  home,  and 
deepened  by  calm  meditation  in  the  shades  of  retirement,  and 
those  solemn  communings  with  things  unseen  and  eternal,  which 
press  so  closely  on  a  christian  man  of  nearly  three  score  years 
and  ten,  were  unable  to  bear  the  rough  and  impetuous  rushings 

in  upon  him  of but  who  can  apprehend  the  position  of  our 

President  in  times  like  ours  ?  The  frame  work  of  the  outer  man 
gave  way,  when  the  floods  of  great  waters  came  upon  him,  and 
'« the  beauty  of  Israel  is  slain  upon  her  high  places  :  how  are  the 
tnii<ihtv  fallen  !" 


Let  no  man's  heart  whisper  to  itself  that  his  decease,  under 
the  circumstances  of  its  occurrence,  is  a  manifest  demonstration 
of  the  divine  displeasure  with  him.  Know  ye  not  that  when  God 
would  chasten  a  family,  a  city,  a  state  or  a  nation,  it  is  his  way 
"to  remove  the  desire  of  their  eyes  with  a  stroke,"  not  because 
of  any  special  iniquity  in  the  one  that  falls  ;  for  then  he  would 
die  for  his  own  sin,  and  how  should  that  be  a  chastisement  of 
theirs?  But  when  the  worthy  to  live  is  cut  off,  "  when  the 
righteous  perisheth,"  when  the  right  arm  of  a  family  is  broken, 
when  the  eye  of  a  city  is  plucked  out,  when  a  pillar  of  the  state 
falls,  when  the  father  of  a  country  is  laid  in  the  dust,  then  it  is 
tli at  the  survivors  endure  chastening.  These  bereavements  re- 
buke the  living,  and  stigmatize  not  the  dead.  It  was  no  crime 
in  Harrison  to  forego  the  repose  of  serene  old  age  for  the  toils  of 
public  life,  for  that  Holy- word  which  was  the  man  of  his  counsel 
taught  him,  "  that  no  man  liveth  unto  himself."  That  the  private 
man  was  merged  in  the  public  character,  is  conspicuous  through- 
out the  brief  period  intervening  between  hiselection  and  his  death  ; 
and  when  wasting  away  under  the  ravages  of  his  mortal  illness, 
his  soul,  though  tranquil  as  to  its  own  necessities  having  therein 
"  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,"  yet  was 
it  burdened  with  the  public  good  ;  and  thus  the  dying  man  was  a 
witness  to  the  purity  of  the  living  President. 

We  need  not  go  far  to  divine  the  design  of  God  in  removing 
President  Harrison  by  sudden  death.  These  years  the  Most 
High  has  been  rebuking  our  countrymen  :  but  they  were  stout- 
hearted and  would  not  hear.  He  burnt  your  cities  with  fire  :  but 
ye  said,  "  The  bricks  are  fallen  down,  and  we  will  build  with 
hewn  stone."  And  ye  have  done  it.  He  blighted  your  crops, 
and  ye  were  pinched  by  scarcity  :  but  ye  said,  "  The  next  season 
shall  be  fruitful,  and  our  barns  shall  be  filled  with  plenty."  And 
it  was  so.  He  hath  deluged  your  fields  with  floods,  and  swept 
away  the  works  of  your  hands :  but  ye  said,  "  The  fields  remain," 
and  they  do  remain  :  "  We  will  restore  the  works  of  our  hands," 
and  ye  do  so.  He  hath  sent  out  his  winds  on  the  deep  and  buried 
your  shipping  beneath  it  :  but  ye  said,  "  We  will  replace  them," 
and  it  cometh  to  pass.  He  bath  muttered  in  your  ears  the  distant 
thunders  of  war.  But  ye  said,  "  We  are  a  mighty  people,  and 
have  swords  and  can  use  them."  And  this  also  ye  may  do.  He 
hath  deranged  your  finances,  crippled  your  trade,  depressed  your 
manufactures,  interrupted  your  exchanges,  depreciated  jour 
currency,  reduced  thousands  from  atfluence  to  bankruptcy,  divi- 
ded your  councils,  shaken  public  credit  and  private  confidence, 
filled  you  wilh  alarm  as  to  the  stability  of  your  government  and 
the  authority  of  law,  and  brought  you  down  to  the  brink  of  des- 
pair :  but  ye  said;  "  William  Henry  Harrison  shall  save  us  out  of 


10 

the  hand  of  all  these  evils.  Lo  !  Harrison  cometh  and  he  will 
restore  all  things."  This  also  came  to  pass  according  to  your 
will.  Now  the  Lord  has  laid  his  hand  upon  him,  and  the  stout- 
hearted millions  of  the  land  are  spoiled,  and  the  men  of  might 
have  lost  their  strength.  Ye  are  heart-stricken  now  my  country- 
men, and  God  has  gained  his  end!  Since  the  decease  of  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  a  more  distinct  recognition  of  the  Providence  of 
God,  and  the  dependence  of  men  on  his  mercy  and  power,  has 
proceeded  from  all  qnarters  than  I  have  ever  hefore  witnessed. 
Here  we  may  read  the  revelation  of  the  divine  design  in  his 
sudden  and  overwhelming  decease. 

A  stranger  to  his  person,  and  remote  from  the  place  of  his 
abode,  not  well  acquainted  with  the  details  of  his  biography,  and 
regardless  alike  of  the  obloquies  and  eulogies  of  a  partizan  press, 
I  have  endeavored  to  find  in  a  few  undisputed  and  well-known 
facts  respecting  him,  evidence  of  bis  integrity  as  a  man,  and  of 
the  grace  of  God  in  him,  as  a  christian.  Herein  he  is  an  example 
for  us  all.  His  temporal  greatness  is  gone  forever.  Without  that 
greatness,  not  a  man  amongst  us  need  repine  at  his  own  obscure 
and  humble  lot.  True  the  year  past  was  a  strange  one  ;  more 
like  a  fable  and  the  tales  of  romance,  than  the  plain  realities  of 
life.  It  seemed  as  if  the  heroic  age  had  revived,  peopled  with  the 
creations  of  the  epic  muse.  It  was  an  apparition.  It  has  melted 
away,  and  ye  are  now  awakened  as  out  of  sleep.  The  sober 
realities  of  things  are  with  us.  Now  we  know  that  the  Lord 
reigns.  Now  we  know  that  "  all  flesh  is  as  grass,  and  all  the 
glory  of  man  as  the  flower  of  grass  :  the  grass  withereth,  and 
the  flower  thereof  falleth  away,  but  the  word  of  the  Lord  en- 
dureth  forever."  If  President  Harrison  made  that  word  his  own 
by  a  lively  faith,  he  has  exchanged  fantastic  apparitions  for  "  a  far 
more  exceedingand  eternal  weight  of  glory."  Herein  follow  him, 
ye  who  delighted  to  honor  him  living,  and  mourn  for  him  dead. 
This  do,  and  ye  may  well  dispense  with  all  that  which  he  could  not 
keep,  and  now  would  not  take.  Awake,  and  leave  the  appari- 
tions of  vain  dreams,  for  the  imperishable  realities  of  grace  and 
glory  !  Illustrious  man  !  other  men  will  praise  thee  for  thy  noble 
form  :  but  the  worms  have  that !  Others  will  praise  thee  for 
thy  martial  deeds  :  but  thy  sword  is  broken  !  Others  will  praise 
thee  for  thy  hospitable  roof  and  well -spread  board  :  but  thy  habi- 
tation  is  desolate  and  will  know  thee  no  more — thy  wife  is  a 
widow  and  thy  children  fatherless  !  Others  will  praise  thee  for 
thy  civil  wisdom  and  patriotic  counsels  :  but  that  knowledge  has 
passed  away  !  Others  will  praise  thee  arrayed  with  the  diadem 
of  the  people's  majesty:  but  that  diadem  is  on  another's  head, 
and  thine  lies  low  in  the  grave  !  I  will  praise  thee  for  that  the 
world  gave  thee  not  nor  hath  taken  away  ;  for  that  which  went 


11 

with  thee  whither  thou  lias  pone,  and  which  has  put  on  thy  head 
an  incorruptible  crown.  Be  ye  of  the  like  precious  faith.  Soon 
your  course  here  will  end.  Ye  cannot  have  his  place  to  die  in  : 
but  ye  shall  have  all  a  place  to  die.  Ye  cannot  have  his  sump- 
tuous coffin  :  but  ye  shall  all  have  a  coffin.  Ye  will  not  have  a 
public  funeral  :  but  ye  shall  all  be  buried.  Believe  and  obey 
that  gospel  which  we  hope  he  believed,  and  ye  shall  have  as 
bright  a  crown  as  now  adorns  his  glorified  head.  lie  has  gone 
from  us,  and  we  must  leave  him.  I  have  spoken  of  him  accord- 
ing to  the  judgment  of  charity.  It  belongs  not  to  us  to  antici- 
pate the  tribunal  of  God  and  forestall  the  judgment  of  the  last 
day.  "  The  Lord  seeth  not  as  men  seeth."  He  has  gone  to  his 
account,  whither  you  and  I  must  soon  follow  him.  Like  our- 
selves he  was  a  natural  heir  of  sin  and  sorrow  and  death,  and 
there  is  no  hope  for  him,  and  none  for  ourselves,  save  in  the 
atoning  blood,  purifying  spirit,  and  boundless  mercy  of  him 
"  who  loved  us,  and  gave  himself  for  us."  If  he  was  Christ's 
here,  he  is  now  with  him  in  eternal  glory.  Arrayed  in  linen 
clean  and  white,  with  a  palm  branch  in  his  hand,  a  crown  of  pure 
gold  on  his  head,  he  is  lifting  up  his  voice  on  high  ;  and  with 
patriarchs,  prophets,  apostle?,  martyrs  and  saints,  singing  the 
song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb. 

Recent  events  rebuke  you,  my  countrymen  !  Ye  have  listen, 
ed  to  the  syren  song  of  men  of  double  tongues  and  guileful  hearts, 
and  ye  have  erred  and  strayed  from  the  right  ways  of  the  Lord 
of  all,  like  lost  sheep.  Ye  have  said,  "  The  land  is  ours,  and 
the  dominion  thereof  is  given  into  our  hands,  and  we  will  raise 
up  and  put  down  at  our  pleasure  ;  we  will  change  laws,  and  or- 
dain the  times  and  seasons,  and  there  is  nothing  which  it  is  not 
in  the  power  of  our  hands  to  do."  Herein  ye  have  waged  war 
with  Him  on  whose  head  are  many  crowns,  and  he  has  proved 
himself  stronger  than  you.  Ye  are  defeated  :  ye  are  clothed  in 
sackcloth,  and  not  in  scarlet :  ye  sit  in  ashes,  and  not  on  your 
high  places  :  "your  laughter  is  turned  to  weeping  and  your  joy 
to  heaviness."  Ye  are  all  rebuked  .«  and  no  man  can  now  say  to 
his  brother,  "  The  Lord  is  on  my  side."  Ye  are  both  rebuked. 
Neither  this  one,  nor  that  one,  as  you  would  have  had  it,  sits 
now  in  your  chair  of  state.  See  ye  not  that  "  the  race  is  not  to 
the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong?"  Has  not  the  "Lord 
confounded  the  wisdom  of  the  wise,  and  brought  to  nought  the 
understanding  of  the  prudent  ?"  Ye  are  heart -stricken  my  coun- 
trymen !  Far  be  it  from  me  to  be  glad  at  your  calamities,  or  to 
mock  now  that  distress  has  come  upon  you.  My  country  !  with 
all  thyfaults  I  love  thee  slill  !  Youngest, fairest,  bestof  nations  ! 
But  thou  art  as  an  untamed  heifer.  In  thy  fat  pastures  thou  hast 
waxed  wanton.     Thou  hast  drawn  back  the  shoulder,  and  kicked 


12 

against  the  goads.  Bow  down  thy  neck,  lest  thou  be  led  to  the 
slaughter. 

Learn  my  countrymen  that  the  Lord  reigns.  His  is  the  king- 
dom, the  power,  and  the  glory.  "  Which  of  you  can  say,  and  it 
cometh  to  pass,  when  the  Lord  commandeth  it  not?"  Ye  are  no 
sovereigns.  "  Ye  are  flesh,  not  spirit."  Ye  are  "  clay  in  the 
hands  of  the  potter."  Ye  are  no  lords.  Ye  have  no  dominion 
over  the  breath  of  your  nostrils.  Heaven  and  earth  are  not 
your's.  Seed  time  and  harvest,  summer  and  winter,  are  none  of 
thine.  Times  and  seasons  wait  not  your  bidding.  Ye  are  crea- 
tures of  God,  and  the  world  ye  live  in  is  his.  Ye  have  said, 
"  The  latter  day  glory'of  the  earth  is  our's  ;  but  where  is  it  ?" 
"  Watchman  !  what  of  the  night  ?"  Where  are  thy  astrologers, 
and  star-gazers,  and  sooth-sayers  ?  Turn  ye  to  the  God  of  your 
fathers.  He  is  the  true  God,  and  the  everlasting  king.  Inquire 
at  his  oracles.  There  you  will  find  the  ways  of  wisdom,  the 
paths  of  peace,  the  door  of  hope,  the  fountain  of  living  waters, 
the  tree  of  life,  an  inheritance  incorruptible,  undefiled  and  that 
fadeth  not  away.  Our  fathers  trusted  in  him  and  they  were  de- 
livered :  they  trusted  in  him,  and  their  faces  were  not  ashamed. 
Go  then,  my  countrymen,  and  sin  no  more  !  Go  ye,  household 
by  household,  and  man  by  man,  and  seek  the  God  that  made 
you,  "  in  whose  hand  your  breath  is.  and  whose  are  all  your 
ways."  "  Lift  up  your  eyes  unto  the  hills  from  whence  cometh 
your  help.  Your  help  cometh  from  the  Lord,  which  made 
heaven  and  earth.  He  will  then  not  suffer  your  foot  to  be 
moved  :  he  that  keepeth  you  will  not  slumber.  Behold,  he  that 
keepeth  Israel  will  not  slumber  nor  sleep.  The  Lord  will  be 
thy  keeper  :  the  Lord  shall  be  thy  shade  at  thy  right  hand.  The 
sun  shall  not  smite  thee  by  day,  nor  the  moon  by  night.  The 
Lord  shall  preserve  thee  from  all  evil :  he  shall  preserve  thy 
soul.  And  the  Lord  shall  preserve  thy  going  out  and  thy  coming 
in  from  this  time  forth,  and  even  forever  more.  "  But  as  for 
such  as  turn  aside  to  their  crooked  ways,  the  Lord  shall  lead 
them  forth  with  the  workers  of  iniquity;  but  peace  shall  be  upon 
Israel." 

As  to  our  country's  welfare,  and  the  administration  of  our 
government  and  laws,  it  behooveth  us  ever  to  be  mindful  of  the 
injunction  of  God's  holy  word,  wherein  we  are  commanded 
"  first  of  all  to  make  supplications,  intercessions  and  giving  of 
thanks  for  all  men  :  for  kings  and  all  that  are  in  authority,  that 
we  may  lead  quiet  and  peaceable  lives  in  all  godliness  and  hon- 
esty," La}^  aside  then,  your  animosities  as  partizans,  my  coun- 
trymen, and  down  upon  your  knees  as  christians.  If  ye  seek  the 
public  good,  your  own  and  your  children's,  put  away  your  divis- 
ions, and  "  do  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  God." 


13 

M  Then  your  peace  shall  be  as  a  river,  and  yourrighteousness  as 
the  waves  of  the  sea.  Then  no  evil  shall  befall  you,  nor  any 
plague  come  nighyour  dwellings  :"  no  weapon  formed  against  you 
shall  prosper,  and  every  tongue  that  riseth  up  against  you,  ye 
shall  condemn.  The  Lord,  who  is  a  God  of  peace,  abhoreth 
your  strifes.  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  Ye 
are  brethren,  fall  not  out  by  the  way.  Spe.ik  ye  every  man 
truth  with  his  neighbor.  Why  do  ye,  one  against  another,  the 
work  of  enemies  ?  He  that  soweth  strife,  and  maUeth  divisions, 
seeketh  not  your  advantage,  but  his  own.  Abhor  the  deceitful 
man,  and  choose  none  of  his  ways,  for  he  shall  suddenly  fall  into 
mischief,  and  the  Lord  will  take  him  in  his  own  craftiness. 

Finally,  brethren,  the  'time  is  short.  We  and  our  world  are 
coming  to  an  end.  The  last  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the  judge- 
ment begin.  There  is  a  Mighty  One  on  high,  whom  we  hear  of 
in  the  gospel,  but  whom  we  all  shall  see  coming  in  the  clouds  ot 
heaven.  Be  ye  at  peace  with  him.  All  power  is  his.  He  hath 
the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death-  It  is  better  to  put  your  trust  in 
him,  than  to  trust  in  man  :  it  is  better  to  trust  in  him,  than  to 
trust  in  princes.  Serve  ye  him  with  fear,  and  rejoice  with  tremb- 
ling ;  for  he  cometh  to  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  and  the 
people  with  his  truth.  The  earth  shall  give  up  her  dead,  and 
the  sea  the  dead  that  are  therein.  Seeing  then  that  ye  look  for 
such  things,  be  diligent  that  ye  may  be  found  of  him  in  peace, 
without  spot  and  blameless,  for  our  God  is  a  consuming  fire  ! 


Princeton  Theolog1 


„cal  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1012  01082  0258 


DATE  DUE 

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